Video games,terrorism, and ISIS’s Jihad 3.0

This study discusses different media strategies followed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). In particular, the study attempts to understand the way ISIS’s video game that is called “Salil al-Sawarem” (The Clanging of the Swords) has been received by the online Arab public. The article argues that the goal behind making and releasing the video game was to gain publicity and attract attention to the group, and the general target was young people. The main technique used by ISIS is what I call “troll, flame, and engage.” The results indicate that the majority of comments are against ISIS and its game, though most of the top ten videos are favorable towards the group. The sectarian dimension between Sunnis and Shiites is highly emphasized in the online exchanges, and YouTube remains an active social networking site that is used by ISIS followers and sympathizers to promote the group and recruit others.     

我国反恐怖主义立法完善研讨

恐怖主义本质上是一种思想、理念,但是恐怖主义外化为行为而成为法律调控的对象,法律可以通过预防、处置、制裁和恢复等环节对恐怖主义行为进行有效规制。我国的反恐怖主义立法是由相关法律、行政法规和部门规章所共同建构的,在刑法等法律中还存在专门的反恐怖主义内容。但是,我国反恐怖主义立法尚存在内容上的缺憾,宪法中应确立反对恐怖主义之明确依据。同时进行专门的反恐怖主义立法,并形成“以宪法为依据,以反恐怖法为主导,诸法配合”的反恐怖主义立法新格局。     

Dimensions of security

Abstract

The Arab uprisings’ failure to bring about either the scale or type of political change in the Maghreb that it initially seemed to promise belies the significance of its impact on the region. While Algeria, Mauritania and Morocco continue to be ruled by the same competitive authoritarian regimes that held power when the protests began, they, and the new governments in Tunisia and Libya, must now negotiate an altered and more dangerous security environment than before. The unsettling of Tunisia’s security apparatus and the outbreak of full-blown civil war in Libya have created new opportunities for terror and criminal groups to thrive and expand. The primary aim of this special issue is to chart and explain many of the critical changes in the Maghreb’s security environment that have occurred as a result of the Arab Spring. Each of the articles collected here identifies and analyses at least one important security issue in one or more Maghreb country as well as explain how that issue has emerged in response to or been affected by the Arab Spring.     

How has the Israel National Police perceived its role in counterterrorism and the potential outcomes? A qualitative analysis of annual police reports

Policing terrorism has increased in recent years. Correspondingly, policing scholars and practitioners have begun to consider the potential effects of this responsibility on the performance of the police and their relationship with the public. In this article, we use a qualitative analysis of annual police reports to examine how the Israel National Police perceived its role in counterterrorism and the potential implications. We find different perceptions in different periods and partial acknowledgment of potential outcomes. We consider the views of the police in relation to those of the public, and speculate on the differences between the three examined time periods.     

Policing terrorism and police–community relations: views of the Arab minority in Israel

Police involvement in counterterrorism has special ramifications on minority groups that may be viewed as presenting high risk to homeland security. Our public survey shows that the Jewish respondents in our sample expressed positive attitudes toward police involvement in mission of counterterrorism, while Israeli Arabs expressed more concern with the ramifications of police involvement in counterterrorism on its relations with the Arabs in particular. The results show that both communities recognized the central role that the police may play in dealing with terrorism, and they both expressed high levels of willingness to cooperate with the police to fight against terrorism.     

反恐背景下的国土安全警务模式研究

我国未来警察角色功能应适应世界潮流的趋势,从传统的社区安全维护角色,提升为国土安全维护的角色。借鉴美国国土安全预警、危机处理、情报收集、分析、共享警务模式,我国在社会管理创新战略指引下,警察机关应围绕着国家安全与社会安全管理创新进行一系列的机制、策略、模式等改革,以适应当前的复杂的治安趋势和反恐工作的需要。所以,国土安全警务模式予以我国的启示是:警察机关应重视国土安全维护的任务,制定以情报主导的国土安全警务模式,建立国土安全警务的监督机制,从而应对当前的国际及国内的反恐形势。     

煽动民族仇恨、民族歧视罪的司法定位变化与刑事应对

煽动民族仇恨、民族歧视罪在立法之初保护的是公民的民族平等、团结的民主权利,但近年来该罪出现了被恐怖组织所利用,危及社会稳定,甚至引发严重暴力恐怖活动的趋势。本罪作为应对恐怖主义犯罪罪名体系的基础性罪名,与涉及恐怖主义犯罪的煽动分裂国家罪,组织、领导恐怖组织罪等罪名在司法上相结合形成阶梯式罪名体系。由此,在立法上应当提升该罪的分则地位,加重法定刑,在司法上应树立对煽动民族仇恨、民族歧视罪危害后果的正确认识。     

The Institutionalization of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI)

A number of observers have expressed serious concerns that Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI), as it expands in the Sahel, may become strong enough to be a threat to Europe and carry on the global mission of Al-Qaeda as conceived by bin Laden. This fear seems unwarranted. Using institutional analysis to study the AQMI behavioral fluctuations over the last decade, this article argues that AQMI's need to find a compromise between external and internal legitimacy has constrained its behavior. The affiliation of the Algerian terrorists with Al-Qaeda was in many ways a marriage of convenience that created a number of internal contradictions. At the cognitive level, implicit Algerian nationalism to rid the country of its corrupt regime remains at odds with pan-Islamic views shared by Al-Qaeda's leadership. At the normative level, indiscriminate suicide bombing supported by Al-Qaeda is abhorrent to many Algerian terrorists, who construe their mandate in the spirit of the Algerian war of independence where it is their duty to protect civilians. These and other contradictions prevent AQMI from developing a coherent political agenda and thus it is less likely to engage in a long-term conflict against European societies.     

Pathway to terrorist behaviors: The role of childhood experiences,personality traits,and ideological motivations in a sample of Iraqi prisoners

Radicalization to terrorism is a multifaceted process with no single theory or approach to explain it. Although research has focused on understanding the process, there is still a dearth of studies that examine an empirically driven pathway to terrorism behavior. This study examines a cross-sectional sample of incarcerated men convicted of terrorism in Iraq (N = 160). A questionnaire-guided interview included adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), conduct disorder (CD), antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), religious and political ideology, views about causes of terrorism, and the severity of terrorist acts. Path analysis was employed to examine the relationships between these factors and to identify the model with the best fit. After adjusting for age, employment, and location, results indicated that ACEs positively impacted CD, ASPD, religious guidance, and terrorism attitudes. ASPD positively affected political commitment and terrorism attitudes, but inversely affected current religious commitment. Political commitment inversely influenced terrorism attitudes. Religious commitment positively influenced the prioritization of religion in life, which subsequently impacted terrorism attitudes and behavior severity. Additionally, attitudes toward terrorism directly affected the severity of terrorism behavior. All paths in the final model were statistically significant at p < 0.05. Although these findings may be limited in generalizability due to the unique sample, results support the complex and interdependent nature of childhood and adult experiences on the development of both terrorism attitudes and the severity of terrorism behavior.     

Representations of terrorism and the making of counterterrorism policy

Reflexive approaches not only maintain that representations of danger are socially constructed but also that they relate with political behaviour. Representations of terrorism, for instance, are argued to constitute that danger in distinct ways and thus to make certain counterterror policies possible. This article challenges this popular association of reflexive security studies with constitutive effects. It argues that constitutive argumentation advances an insufficiently tangible argument of effect, and that this conceptual weakness derives from both a problematic foundational social theory and a premature rejection of causation. Drawing on the social theory of Margaret Archer and Roy Bhaskar and a differentiated notion of causation, the article advances a “dialectical causal” framework for the analysis of representations of danger instead. Applying it to contemporary Swiss terrorism politics, the article shows how this framework improves on constitutive argumentation in disentangling the political powers involved in the production and enactment of representations of danger.